Chico in the fall, as any Chicoan could tell you, is a windy city, and Wednesday at Community Park was no exception.

The Shasta High soccer team took advantage of it.

The Wolves scored twice in the first half and played stoic defense in the second, defeating Eastern Athletic League opponent Pleasant Valley 2-1.

The first score came on a soft, shallow volley from Shasta’s Gundolf Breimann that appeared to twist with the wind and over diving PV goalkeeper Matt Silva.

“Before the game, we saw that it was really windy,” Breimann said. “It was just a drop that I had, and I thought I’d take the chance with the wind. It worked.”

After the first half, PV coach Michael Vought told his players, “That first goal, tip your hat. The second one is on you guys.”

That goal came only two minutes after Breimann’s chip shot, when Shasta’s Jordan Miller booted one through traffic past Silva, who had rushed forward to cut it off. The shot, which was deflected just enough to throw off Silva’s route to the ball, dribbled into the net before PV defenders could turn back to brush it away.

PV (1-2-1, 1-1-0 EAL) came back immediately in the second half, taking less than a minute to do so when Marcos Padilla ripped through two defenders down the left sideline and hooked a left-footed shot into the right corner to cut the difference in half. The offensive push from PV left the defense exposed, however, and Vought said the Vikings were lucky to walk out with only a one-score defeat.

“They were outstanding in the midfield,” he said. “They knew what we were trying to do, and they kept their poise and kept pushing us back. It’s a good sign that our defense held the way it did.”

That included seven saves from Silva, who found himself thanking another strong gust when he charged forward to cut off a breakaway. The shot was chipped over his head, but stayed up just long enough to brush softly against the bottom of the crossbar and innocently roll away. It was one of many close calls for Shasta (3-2-0, 2-0-0), which impressed its coach with its play.

“We were really getting in position and passing it around,” coach Brandon Good said. “We weren’t just playing kickball. We had some really nice cross-field passing.”

The win wasn’t flawless for the Wolves, though, as was evidenced by the second-half goal right out of bed.

“That caught us off-guard, definitely,” Good said. “That goal could have been a complete shift in momentum. It’s exactly what we didn’t want to happen, because it made it anyone’s game.”

It was a different story in the first half, though, as PV frequently had the ball in Wolves territory but inexplicably found itself down 2-0 after failing to stop the few offensive attacks Shasta managed.

“It was a little frustrating,” Vought said. “We were able to maintain possession, but we didn’t have rhythm with our passing.”

But Shasta held on, routinely keeping pressure on the Viking defenders. Then, with time dwindling, PV managed to get two corner kick opportunities and actually got off shots on both, but was turned away as the game ended.

“When it starts to get desperate toward the end of a game, you hope you get opportunities,” Vought said. “We got them, but we didn’t convert. That’s soccer.”